People Manager Malawi – Heifer International

Job Description

Description#

Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with some form of disability.

The Organization

Since 1944, Heifer International has empowered over 46 million smallholder farmer families globally to overcome hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. Our new goal is to close the Sustainable Living Income gap for 10 million more households by 2030.

Heifer Malawi contribution to the Global 10 million households target is to help 500,000 of Heifer Africa’s 6.745 million households achieve sustainable living income by 2030. Heifer Malawi’s maiden Signature Program, currently under design – will set the pace, focusing on Dairy, Beef and Banana as primary value chains and Oil Seeds, and Poultry as secondary value chains. Heifer Malawi is where it is happening now – impacting the lives of small holder farmers.

Function

Reporting directly to the Country Director with a matrix reporting relationship to the Senior People Director, this role strategically partners with the Country Shared Leadership. The role holder interprets the Country Business Operations Strategy to inform Country People Strategy and utilizes their technical expertise to develop and implement country operational plans.

As a member of the Regional Community of Practice and Global People Network (GPN), the role holder actively keeps the region informed of Malawi-relevant context insights to inform the Regional and Global short-term and long-term Vision People Strategy development and co-design processes. The individual collaborates with the business and Shared Leadership to identify emerging people issues, support organizational change processes, and broker people solutions for country programmatic impact.

The role enhances the country’s locally led delivery of the people strategic strands, which include:

• Ensuring staff feel motivated and valued by how Heifer treats them as an employer.
• Building an engaged, capable, diverse, and mission-driven workforce.
• Ensuring program quality and excellence through competence and capability development.

The position will deliver and achieve strategic strands of People Business Processes Management, Talent Management, Performance Management, Compensation and Benefits, Organization Development, and Learning and Development.

The role fosters an in-service culture with a strong frontline focus, coordinates with external and internal customers of the People function and delivers People Functional services aligned with Heifer International Malawi’s agreed people business standards.

Responsibilities & Deliverables

A. Shared Leadership (20%) 

• Facilitate leadership collaboration by ensuring regular and effective communication among Country Shared Leadership Team members, promoting cross-functional collaboration and shared decision-making.
• Design and implement frameworks for collective decision-making to ensure input from relevant stakeholders.
• Support the leadership team in clarifying roles, responsibilities, and areas of ownership.
• Establish and coordinate cross-functional leadership circles or committees to address strategic issues or projects.
• Work closely with the Country Director and Shared Leadership team to embed shared leadership values into the organizational culture through training, communication, and role modeling.
• Develop and implement leadership development programs to enhance collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills.
• Organize team-building exercises to foster trust, collaboration, and collective ownership.
• Establish and maintain effective communication platforms to promote transparency and ensure information flows across leadership levels.

B. Country People Strategy, Roadmaps, and Policy Development (20%) 

• Co-develop HR strategies for Heifer International Malawi in alignment with the organization’s vision, mission, and values.
• Develop and implement Heifer International Malawi’s annual People Work Plan within the business partnering framework.
• Provide context to inform Africa and Global People Strategies and policies.
• Anticipate risks and drive a learning culture around risk for continuous innovation.
• Ensure policies and procedures are fair and compliant with Malawian labor laws.
• Deliver People work with confidentiality, adhering to organizational needs.

C. Community of Practice (10%) 

• Define objectives and align them with the organizational strategy.
• Engage key stakeholders from various departments to foster cross-functional collaboration.
• Facilitate meetings, workshops, and knowledge-sharing sessions for dialogue and problem-solving.
• Collect, document, and disseminate best practices and lessons learned.
• Encourage peer-to-peer learning and mentoring within the Community of Practice.
• Identify knowledge gaps and collaborate with learning and development teams to address these.

D. Delivery of Strategic Strands (30%) 

• Implement and oversee key areas: People Business Processes Management, Talent Management, Performance Management, Compensation and Benefits, Learning and Development, and Organizational Development.

E. Frontline Execution, Operational Excellence, and Customer Orientation (15%) 

• Lead the implementation of the People Pillar Frontline Execution Strategy in Malawi.
• Incorporate feedback and needs of frontline staff into People Strategy implementation.
• Build a customer-oriented team by embedding customer focus into Heifer International Malawi’s culture.
• Maintain active and regular working relationships with external stakeholders such as government authorities, service providers, and comparable organizations.

F.  Administration and Other Assigned Functions (5%) 

• Perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field. Continued HR education/certification is an added advantage.
• A minimum of 10 -12 years’ experience, 5 of which will be in managing HR functions in a dynamic organization.
• In-depth knowledge of Malawi Labor Law.
• Previous experience with HRIS.
• Local Human Resources Certification.

Preferred Requirements 

• Experience in implementing strategy, meeting objectives, and working within a matrix structure.
• Excellent Organization Development/influencing skills, collaborative leadership, team management, active listening, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Competence to build and effectively manage interpersonal relationships at all levels of the company.
• Good analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working
• Previous experience with an International NGO is highly valued.

Key Behavioural Competencies    

• Accountability
• Professional Excellence
• Humility
• Customer Orientation
• Empathy
• Innovation

Deadline for Application: 3rd December 2024